Longview
by The Familiar
Summary: Dib and Zim get stuck on an alien zoo. Rated for character death in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

A dark, moonless night. A boy in dark clothes looks up at the stars. Or he would be, if they weren't covered with clouds.

'This stinks. Zim's not doing anything, the bigfoot sighting was just a hobo looking for food, and it's too dark to see any spaceships.' He yawned. 'Maybe I could just sleep for a bit.'

The bigfoot looked up from the trash can it was searching through and saw a boy on a roof sleeping. It yawned too, sleep might be a good idea.

A girl walking home from a UFO convention (that dib hadn't heard of?!) decided to have a rest on a park bench. It had been a long night for her.

A green child walking his dog felt odd, then fell to the ground, fast asleep. The dog continued to walk, drinking his Suck Monkeee.

Weasels having escaped from an experiment involving lasers and pain were asleep on the road.

Two dogs decided to stop what they were doing and go to sleep. Neither of them seemed to be winning, anyway.

A Cat and her kittens were sound asleep under a bush.

The night was quiet.

-- - - --- ---- -

I named this after the next song that came on. I think I'll name all my future unmade stories like this.

The prologue to my ALL NEW multiple chaptered story. Aren't you all excited? I know I said I wouldn't write another one, but this idea was too long to put in a one-shot. 


	2. plot, aka exposition

Dib woke up.

Something seemed to be strange. He had fallen asleep on the sloped corrudation of the roof, and he had woken up in a nice bed with sheets and a pillow. That didn't seem right to him, nobody would have taken him off the roof, plus there was a slight humming. He started to go back to sleep. Something about it promoted restfulness.

'You dare to capture ZIM in your SHIP of SLEEP!!!'

That didn't help him sleep. Wait, what was Zim doing here?

'Zim? What are you doing here?' Dib opened his eyes, but everything was blurry because he didn't have his glasses.

'Dib! You dare distrb ZIM when he is questioning a hostile force!'

Dib found his glasses. They seemed to have been handed to him. He put them on and everything became clearer. He was in a plain metal room, with only a door and three other beds and two bedside tables to break up the monotony of grey metal walls. Zim was in one of those beds. One of Zims' hands was cuffed to the bed. He looked at his own, and they were free from restraints.

In the room were also two blue aliens that looked like wolves standing on their back legs, both wearing yellow jumpsuits.

There was also a tall alien that reminded him of a fish. It was about the same colour as he was, which surprised him somewhat, but it was of a more purple shade. It also had a tall head.

On leashes held by the fish-alien, as he had decided to call it were two green things. Blobs for bodies and one eye on a stalk on top of both of their heads. They were running about stupidly.

The fish alien noticed he was awake. 'You seem to be awake, little earth creature. Do not be worried. My name is Sushi-'

'Sushi, like the raw fish dish?'

'No, I have never heard of this fish of yours, neither have I ever heard of a meal made out of it-'

'You will let me go NOW! By holding me here you are invoking the wrath of the Irken empire!'

'Why am I here? I mean, why did you take me on your spaceship. Are we on a spaceship? What species are you?'

Sushi left the room, after saying 'I will explain it all later, once you've both settled down.'

Dib looked at Zim. 'Do you know-' he wasprevented from finishing the question by Zims' angry yells.

'It's your fault I'm here. If you hadn't broken my instrumens I would've known they were coming. Now I'm stuck here with you!' He tried to get up to attack Dib, but was pulled up short by the handcuff, and fell off the bed instead. He started tugging at the cuff to get it off his hand.

As his back was turned to Dib, Dib saw that the pack on Zims' back had been welded shut. After a few minutes of tugging, Zim gave up and sat on the ground next to the bed.

Dib decided this was a good time to ask Zim questions.

'Hey Zim, do you know where we are?' It seemed like Zim was going to start yelling at him again, so he added 'because you know so much about aliens and the universe, and only you would be able to tell me anything about it, because I'm just a pitiful human.'

Zim gloated at the last comment. 'So you finally admit your inferiority to me? From what I can gather, we're in a space Zoo. They go around the galaxies taking creatures from planets to put on display and show to other races.'

'I'm on display, nothing more than an exhibit for other aliens?'

'Yes. I can see how they could mistake you for a pitiful animal, but how could they mistake Zim, who is obviously NOT an animal.'

Dib made an "idunno" noise, and they lapsed into silence for a few hours. 


	3. MS Paint

The monotony of silence was broken up by the door opening. Dib looked up to see if it was Sushi back to explain more about where they were. It was and there was a human with it. The human was a girl about Dibs age, with flowing blonde hair, brilliant blue eyes, and an "I Believe" shirt on. It looked like she had been crying. A wolf thing was leading a slightly torn looking dog into the room.

'If you have settled down, I will explain why you are all here.'

'Zim already knows why he is here, and you have made a big mistake in mistaking ME for an animal.'

Sushi gave him a look. 'I have brought you all here so they rest of the galaxies can see what creatures from other places look like.'

'And then you'll take the creatures from other places and put them in your Zoo.'

Sushi gave Zim another look. 'Yes, but only so other people can know what they look like. You will all be fed at regular intervals, according to your bodily systems. Are there any uestions any of you wanted to ask?'

Zim stood up. 'Yes. Will Zim be let out of these restraints?'

'Only if you behave yourself.' Zim sat back down.

'Will we ever be allowed back home?'

'No.' There were no more questions to ask after that one.

'If you need anything just press that button,' Sushi said, pointing to a big, red button on the wall near the door. Then they left.

The girl turned to Dib. 'Hi, my name's Deborah. Deborah Marais. You can call me Deb. What's your name?'

'My name's Dib. Dib-' he was cut off by Zim laughing at them.

'You humans are so stupid. We're in a Zoo, and you are having pleasentries. No wonder your species is so useless, if that's what you do when you're in trouble.' He sat there in a cloud of smug superiority.

'Well I don't see you trying to get out, or do anything useful. YOU'RE just sitting there.'

'I can't go anywhere. Primitive as this species is, I can't get out of these cuffs.'

Dib decided to ignore Zim, and continued his conversation with Deb. 'So you believe in aliens?'

'Oh yes, I think I might have been abducted when I was a child, but I can't ask dad about it, and I don't ever see my mum (mom), and my sisters laugh at me whenever I mention it, and my boyfriend teased me about it, before he broke up with me, and everybody in my class laughs at me for it, and my friends just don't understand me.'

'Wow' Dib said. 'That sounds exactly like me. Except for the boyfriend thing. And the part about the friends. And the mum (mom) part. But apart from those, we seem to have been created to be together, or one of us is the original, and the other is just a cheap copy made to imitate the style of the original, but with a few differences.'

'That is so deep. I think I love you Dib.'

'Really. You seem to be moving a bit fast.'

In the backround Zim was being silently sick. All these humans and their emotions.

The dog was trying to figure out where it was, what a "zoo" was, and the strange smelling thing in the corner was.  
'I don't think so.' Deb was inching closer to Dib.

'Maybe we should get to know each other better first.' Dib said, moving further away from Deb. He may have been a boy, but he was pre-pubescent, and hadn't had much experience when inter-acting with girls, or even other people.

'Oh. Ok' Deb stopped encroaching on Dibs parsonal space, and looked to be sulking slightly.

'Don't be like that. Lets try and find a way out of here. There must be some flaw in their security system' Dib got up, and helped Deb off the floor.

They started searching the walls, fllor and roof, while Zim was laughing at them. 'You think you can escape from a Zoo? These places hold almost every species in the galaxies. If the Tsun can't get out of these things, inferior to Irkens that they are, they are still more able to escape from places than you HUmans are. It has been said that not even a mesomorph would be able to escape from these places. I doubt two HUman worm-monkeys would be able to find a way out. Especially not if they are as pathetic as YOU are, Dib, and no doubt the other HUman is equally if not more unable to discover an escape from this place.'

'Shut up, you stupid insect thing,' Deb yelled at him.

'Insect!? You DARE insult Zim with your stupid mouth of cheese and LIES!!!! The only way Zim could be compared to an insect is that he's far superior to YOU.'

'What?'

'You heard me.'

'That didn't make any sense. Insects aren't superior to humans.'

'Yes they are.'

'No they aren't.'

'Yes they are.'

'No they aren't.'

'You LIE!!!!!!!! You LIE!!!! Pathetic human, trying to lie to ZIM!!!!!! I will crush you under my foot ike you would crush a bug!'

'But bugs are insects.'

'What?'

'Bugs are insects. If we crush insects, and you are superior, like an insect, wouldn't that make you inferior?'

'Stupid human! You are so stupid you do not understand the superiority that is my logic. It is superior, like a bug.'

'That's stupid.'

'You're stupid.'

Dib turned to Deb. 'Never get into a logic arguement with Zim. I have learnt that.'

Zim went and sulked in a corner, well the corner formed by the bed and the wall.

'Let's look for that escape way.' Deb and Dib continued to search the room.

-- - --- --- - -- -

Deb was, to begn with, just a simple Mary-Sue rip-off. She was going to be called Susan (Sue for short). But then I thought about the most used form of Mary-Sue in the IZ universe, and it was usually a recreation of Dib, but with a few changes, and a more tragic backround. So then I wrote her like that. I changed her name because she reminded me of Jimmy (Mmy) from the jthm comics, and Deb sounds more like a rip-off of Dib. Mary Sues are often tragic UFO lovers so they can get the attention of Dib.

The insect arguement was fun to write. 


	4. filler

It didn't take Dib and Deb long to search the room. They found nothing. No holes in the wall, no secret exits/entrances, nothing.

'If only we knew the layout of the ship, or anything about it.' Deb said, disheartened by the lack of secret exits.

'Zim might know it,' Dib suggested. 'Do you know the layout of this ship Zim?' He asked of Zim, who was wondering if his hand would ever feel anything again.

'Hmmm? Not of this ship, but I know the general set-up of most Zoo ships. I have even visited one as part of my lessons. We had to see the other pitiful lifeforms inhabiting the galaxies.' He shuddered at the memory of all the filthy lifeforms.

'oh-Kay' Dib said, confused by this revelation of Zims'. He usually never said anything about anything. 'Were there any ways off a Zoo?'

'No. They are better guarded than Justicia, even Penetentia. The only things that can get on or off them are tourists, and workers if an accident occurs on this ship.'

'Do you think we'd be able to pretend to be tourists, and get off it that way?'

'If you get out the door, maybe I would, but you humans are so ugly nobody could mistake you as anything but animals.'

The door opened, and Deb ran at it. She hit an invisible wall and bounced off.

A wolf creature looked startled at this, and walked inside the room carrying fod for Dib and Deb. The food was bowls full of a type of grain covered in what could have been milk, if milk was a pale pink and smelt of vomit. 'Ewwwwww' Dib complained, pushing he bowl away. Deb took a smell of it and pushed hers away too. Even the dog stayed away from the bowls.

While Dib and Deb were enjoying their "breakfast", a window in the wall opposite the door appeared. At the window were a group of small teddy bear creatures, a few pastel coloured blobs with arms and legs, and a tall pink creature with large ear flaps and eyes on stalks. A wolf creature was leading them around and also narrating the tour.

'We recently acquired these creatures from a primitive planet called Earth. The one with blonde fur on its' head, and the other one like it with black fur, are members of the dominant species on the planet. They are called Humans. They are not terribly dangerous, and are very primitive. The four legged one is more dangerous than the humans, but appears to be of less intelligence. It is called a Dog. We have another one in the next room, but we had to seperate them because they wanted to fight. The green one sitting on the floor by the bed, no, not the pale green humans, see, over there, is an Irken. There are not many of them in this region of space. I'll give you a few minutes to study them. Ask any questions you want.'

Dib felt a bit uncomfortable under the close scrutiny of the group of aliens watching them. He would've hidden behind the bed, but there wasn't much of it to hide behind. The group of aliens were asking questions of the guide, and it was getting very noisy. The dog started barking. The group of aliens left, and the door closed with them.

Deb went over to sit next to Dib, 'I don't think I'll be able to go to a zoo again.' Dib agreed with her.

'That also gets rid of the option of escaping through the door.'

In his corner Zim was having a breakdown. This would be what the humans would do to him if they caught him. But if the humans caught him, there would also be pain.

15 minutes later another group came around, and 15 minutes after that, and so on, for what Dib guessed to be 4 hours, and what Deb confirmed. She had been timing it on her mobile (cell) phone.

After all the groups had gone around, a wolf guard came. He was carrying two plates of a flat bread thing and some vegetables, plus two glasses of water. He was carrying a plate of meat and a bowl of water too. He also unlocked Zim from the cuff, who exaggeratedy rubbed his wrist and ignored the guard. Dib was considering throwing his water at Zim, but was too thirsty, and now that Zim was free he could retaliate.

'So, Zim.' Dib started when he had eaten 'what are those wolf things?'

'They are Vorticons.'

'I thought vorticons were goat things?'

'Don't be stupid. Those are Vortians.'

'Ahh. How do they get get through the force fields?'

'Their genetic codes would have been programmed into the force field allowing them through.'

'Hang on' Deb said, 'How could I get through the force field if my genetic code's not been programmed into the force field?'

'They must have temporarily put your genetics into the field.'

'Wow, Zim' Deb gushed, 'you know heaps about aliens.'

'Yes. Yes I do. You are right in praising me.'

'And about alien ships?'

'Of course.'

'What kind of escape ships would some place like this have?'

It wasn't a very subtle way of obtaining information, but with Zim, you didn't need subtlety. You just needed to heap on the praise.

'It would probably be equipped with standard bi-handling, four seating flee vehicles.' He thought for a few seconds. 'In a ship like this they would be at the sides. There would be about 200 of them.'

'Bi-handling? Does that mean that-'

'Yes. They need two people to drive them. So I would need to bring one of you with me when I get out of here.'

'You're very confidant of getting out of here. I bet you can't.'

'Of course I can. I could do it easily.'

'How?'

'By using... wait. I will not fall for this trick! You will not find out my secrets this easily.'

Dib pleaded with Zim, but Zim refused to tell them. After a few hours of pleading, Dib and Deb started to feel a bit tired, so they went to their own separate beds, after much refusal by Dib, and a fair bit of Deb sulking. 


	5. more plot

Warning: This chapter has character death.

------ - - -- - - - - - - 

Zim looked at the humans sleeping. Trying to sneak information out of him! How dare that female. And Dib, siding with her. How dare he not pay attention to Zim!

He sneaked a look around. All the creatures were asleep. He crept over to the females bed. He sneakily pulled the phone from the creatures' pocket. He started to laugh in triumph, but stopped himself when he realised it would wake them up. Only a species as hopeless as humans wuld spend eight or nine hours a day not protecting themselves. Most of their lives were wasted away by sleeping.

He could easily kill them both now. He couldn't though. To escape he would need to keep at least one alive. He should keep the Dib alive, because, however much he hated to admit it, Dib would be able to help him fly the ship. If he brought both of them with him when he escaped, they might attack him and stop him from getting back to his mission. They would also require too much feeding, and the waste products... why couldn't they be neat? They had to produce so much waste.

To get away and not have to take both with him, he would have to kill the female without the Dib noticing. How to do it and not create a mess. This was something he had found useful on telly vision. If he put the pillow over her face like this, and sat on her to restrain her, then she would die, and no physical marks would be present to make anyone think she had died in any way other than natural causes.

He knew the room would be under surveillance, but he didn't worry about that. Nobody would be watching it, and he had covered the camera.

She had stopped struggling for about fifteen minutes before Zim got off her. You couldn't tell she had died of anything other than natural causes, looking at the body. Her open eyes disturbed him a bit, so he closed them, and maybe the ruffled covers were a bit of a give away that she hadn't died calmly, so he smoothed them out.

Now nobody could tell he had killed her.

- -- -- --- - --- -

That was short. I needed to kill her somehow, and in my plan, I hadn't realised I would deviate from it. She was doomed, anyway.

I needed more Zim in my story. It seemed to focus on Dib. 


	6. escape!

Zim shook Dib awake. 'Wake up, Earth-beast. We're getting out of here.'

'Wha?' Dib asked, half-asleep. 'How are we getting out?'

'By using my amazingness, and this phone battery.'

'Huh?'

'These things explode with amazing ease. Go and create a barrier over in the corner, so you're not killed by the blast.'

'What about Deb?'

'Hmmm?' Zim was fiddling with the mobile (cell) battery. 'Oh, she's dead. Probably stress.'

'What?! How can she be dead?' Dib was upset. He had never met anyone who had died before.

'If you don't create a barrier, you'll be dead like her. Move the beds over to that corner. The furthest from this wall.' He pointed to two corners opposite from each other.

Dib pushed the bed closest to the wall onto its' side, and pushed it so it formed a barrier against the wall, leaving a triangular gap between the two walls and the bed.

Zim looked at the barrier and said that it was adequate, and very good for a human. Then he made Dib hide behind it.

After a few more minutes of fine tuning the "bomb", during which Dib had been complaiing about the time it took, Zim announced that it was ready.

'I have managed to create a bomb capable of getting us out of here, which is more than YOU would have been able to do.' He hid behind the barrier. 'I just have to throw this at the wall, and as soon as it touches the wall, it will explode and create a hole big enough for us to get out.'

He threw the battery at the wall.

Nothing happened.

'Zim, nothing's happening.'

'It will explode soon.'

More seconds went by. Nothing happened.

Zim and Dib both raised their heads to look at the bomb.

The dog sniffed at it and tapped it with its' nose.

The bomb exploded.

Dib and Zim both ducked down, but the top of Dibs hair got singed. The smell of cooked meat and burning hair filled the room.

Looking at the mess Dib felt sickened. Zim also felt sckened, but for a different reason. The smell of the meat...

Dib looked at Debs corpse. He was sure would've vomited. It was blackened and charred. He was prevented from doing so by Zim grabbing his wrist and pulling him through the hole in the wall. Dib looked around him. There was just a corridor, going to the left and the right. His first REAL experience on an alien ship and there were just corridors. It felt like some sort of sick joke.

Zim was already running down the corridor, and Dib ran to keep up with him. All the times he had spent chasing Zim had paid off, he was a great long distance runner.

After running for what seemed to Dib like miles, they got to a junction in the corridor. Dib couldn't read the writing, but Zim seemed to be able to. At the junction was a group of the Voticon holding guns, and pointing them in the direction of Zim and Dib. Zim pointed behind them and screamed 'LOOK OVER THERE!!!!!!!' They all looked that way, giving Dib and Zim the chance to run down the other corridor. The corridor curved slightly, meaning that Zim and Dib wouldn't be seen by their pursuers if they got far enough ahead of them.

They took four turns right, six turns left, and seven turns straight, not in that order. Dib wanted to ask Zim where they were going but he didn't have the breath to spare from running. He wished that Zim had waited until after breakfast for them to make their escape. He was really hungry.

Zim had been counting the number of turns and the distance they had gone. If he was right, which of course he was, they would be near the emergency escape ships soon. A slight explosion wouldn't count as an emergency, but what he had planned would.

-- -- - -- - --

I love dogs. Really, but I didn't know what to do with it, and it was so simple to just blow it up

I hate this chapter. Really. it's awful. Writers block was catching up on me by now. 


	7. the end

Disclaimer: I do not own Jhonen Vasquez, Nickelodeon, or any of the copyrighted material I use in this. The only thing I own is the world. You can't NOT prove it.

--- - - - - -- -- 

They turned a corner. Zim stopped. He pointed to a door. 'Behind that door, Dib, is our exit. There will be a ship for us to take and leave here with.' He opened the door. A room full of control panels was behind it. There were also aliens manning the control panels. They turned at the sound of the door opening.

'You must be lost', one of them said. It looked like a big cow. A big, evil cow. A big, evil cow with a gun. Dib felt scared by it. It also had a Texan accent.

'Yes.' Zim said. 'We are very lost. Would you be able to tell me where our ship is? We got lost.'

'Sure can.' The cow said. 'You just go through there, take the first left, and follow the signs to where it says "Docking Bay". You can't miss it.'

Zim nodded and left the room by the door indicated.

After travelling through some more corridors, meeting aliens and having some very amusing incidents, Dib and Zim found themselves in a giant spaceship hanger.

'Wow.' Dib said. 'Look at all those ships. There must be hundreds of them here.'

'Yes.' Zim looked around them critically. 'So many ships, but none that would be- wow.'

Dib looked over at him. His eyes had widened, and he looked like a kid in a candy store, who had discovered that he had unlimited funds, and would never get full, or feel sick by the amount of lollies he was about to eat.

He walked over to a ship that Dib had thought didn't look like much. It was shiny, and aerodynamicly shaped, but it didn't look very big, or very fancy.

Dib walked over to Zim. 'What is it?'

'This is a Vortian engineered ship. I thought we destroyed all their ships, but some must've escaped. This is a good ship, even by Irken standards. It can travel 50 times faster than my Voot Runner, and can destroy a small moon in one blast. They didn't give us the designs for these ships...' he trailed off. 'Come on Dib. We're taking this ship.'

He went up to the ships' door, and tried to open it. It wouldn't open, so he looked around sneakily. 'Dib' he hissed, 'keep watch.' Then he opened his PAK, and broke the lock on the ship. He entered the ship, and Dib ran quickly behind him, before Zim could lock the door on Dib and leave him behind.

'I thought they sealed you Pak?'

'Yes, but I unsealed it.'

'Hey, Zim. Do you think they'd have any food here?'

It would probably be in the kitchen.' Zim answered distractedly, he was just looking around himself in awe. 'Imagine the control systems.' He said exitedly, running to the front of the ship. Dib thought about following him, but decided to look for food.

Zim found the cock pit, and was amazed by the simplicity of the controls. There were no unnecessary buttons, levers, or dials. He found the radio and turned it on. 'This is ship number 1-59883-027-9, I wish to be cleared for liftoff.' The ships number was printed on a piece of panel. He sat in a chair and waited for a reply.

The radio crackled into life. 'Roger that, Mister Estram. But I want to know how you're leaving when the pilot's still here.'

'No he's not. I am the pilot.'

'Riight. And I'm the Almight Tallest Red.'

'You are?'

'No, I'm not. I'm not giving you clearance either.'

'Either you give me clearance or I blow a hole in the wall of this hanger and leave that way.'

'Ok. We'll give you clearance to leave, but know that you will be followed.'

The ship moved up on a lift and entered the take-off area.

Zim grinned and turned on the engine. He flicked switches to get going, and took off. It was a wonderful thing to fly. It could turn on a pin head, and was the smoothest ship he had ever flown. He was sure not even he could make this ship do anything other than glide smoothely.

Dib came up behind him holding a pot of yoghurt, 'look at all those buttons' he said. 'I didn't even know we had left.' He looked out the window. The ship was facing the Zoo. This was the first time Dib had seen the outside of it. It reminded him of the Death Star from those old Sci-fi movies. Except that the Zoo looked less menacing than the Death Star. 'Wow. It's huge'

'Mmmmm.' Zim agreed. 'I'll set a course for Earth. we should be there in a month or two.'

'Months! but you said this ship went fast.'

'Yes, but we are in about three galaxies away. I thought you would've noticed you had grown half an inch since you left Earth.'

Zim turned the ship so that it was facing away from the Zoo, and pressed a few buttons.

Behind them, the Zoo exploded.

-- - -- -- - -- -- ---

Yes. It had been a few months, maybe more between the first and second chapters. It came as a surprise to me, too.

The end of my Second multi-chaptered story.

There's a competition, too. If you can tell me where I got the ideas for most of the aliens from, I will write you a one shot of your own choosing. It cannot be romance, though. 


End file.
